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| November 18, 2002 | Monday | Ramazan 12, 1423 |
Akif and Iqbal slam centuries
KARACHI, Nov 17: In the most exciting match played todate, Sindh Police booked their berth in the quarterfinals of the 17th Karachi Gymkhana Callmate Cricket Festival, beating Karachi Gymkhana Blues by 36 runs in a high scoring match played Sunday at the Karachi Gymkhana ground.
KG Blues won the toss and put Police into bat, a decision the skipper must have regretted later.
After Kamran Hussain (25) and Akif Alvi got their team off to a sound start by putting on 82 runs for the first wicket. Iqbal Sheikh joined Akif and the big hitting began in earnest when the two put on 174 runs for the second wicket before Akif parted company smashing 14 boundaries and seven sixes in his knock of 135 runs which came off only 73 deliveries.
In the meantime, Iqbal completed his century in the last ball of the stipulated 25 overs, hitting 10 fours and five sixes in his unbeaten knock of 100, which came off 65 balls.
Faced with an uphill task of scoring 11.2 runs per over in chasing 281 runs for victory, the lads from the Gymkhana never lost heart and went on the attack from the word go, when opener Azher Khan hit the first two deliveries for two boundaries. With another shot over the boundary ropes, Karachi Gymkhana Blues showed that they meant business when 15 runs with three wide balls was scored off the first over.
Azhar and Fahad Azeem put on 88 runs for the first wicket in only seven overs when Azhar fell for 59 runs, studded with 10 boundaries and one six in only 28 balls. Soon Fahad was also back in the pavilion after scoring 32 runs in 19 balls with two four and two sixes.
Ahsan Jaffer joined left-hander Nadeem Moosa and scoring off every ball the two added 66 runs for the third wicket with Karachi Gymkhana evenly poised at 170 for two. But with the fall of two quick wickets without any addition to the total, Sindh Police regained the initiative. Continuing to attack Ashan scored 26 and Imran Afzal contributed 21 runs, but with the shadows lengthening over the ground, KG Blues fell short of the victory target by 37 runs, reaching 244 for seven in their 25 overs.
Off-spinners Turab Hussain three for 43 and Iqbal Imam two for 33, made victory possible for the Sindh Police.
In another match played in the morning session, Dewan Mushtaq Sugar Mills shocked Pakistan Customs by two wickets.
Customs batting first scored 157 for eight wickets in their 25 allotted overs through Nisar Abbas (44), Talha Khan (28) and Azhar Shafiq (21). The wickets were shared by Wusat Hussain three for 17, Mohammad Hussain two for 35 and Abdul Hafeez two for 39.
Dewan Mushtaq Sugar Mills getting off to a sound start, kept on piling up the runs and with Asif Zakir scoring (44), Waseem Naeem (38), Wusat Hussain (33) and Fahad Anjum (21), reached the winning target of 158 runs with an over to spare, while losing eight wickets in the process. Leg-spinner Shahid Mahmood bagged three for 24 and medium pacer Imran Alvi three for 36, bowled well for the losers.
On Monday, Malir Gymkhana meet KESC at 1.30pm.
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